"Some" foreigners will visit Phuket in July, says ATTA chief. Thai Visa



REUTERS FILE PHOTO for reference only

 

Thai business media spoke to the chief of the Association of Thai Travel Agents or ATTA on Wednesday with little more than a month to go until until the much hyped "D-Day" of July 1st.

 

That's the day the so-called Phuket Sandbox begins with the hoped for arrival of foreign tourists.

 

And "hoped for" was the order of the day for ATTA chief Sittiwat Chiwarattanaporn who sounded less optimistic than the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor or the Tourism Minister have been in recent weeks and months. 

 

Sittiwat said that studies had been done in places like Phuket, Bangkok, Pattaya and other cities trying to ascertain market demand. 

 

These indicated that just "some foreigners" were likely to arrive in the third quarter (that is to say from July).

 

Those that do come will be an indicator of who might make the journey to Thailand in the fourth quarter.

 

He noted that this was of course the usual high season and tourists would not normally be flocking to Thailand's shores in July even in a good year. 

 

The key for the ATTA chief was the Covid situation around the world and in Thailand with all its variables. 

 

But one thing that Thailand could and should control is the rollout of the vaccines.

 

He stressed that the vaccination of people in Thailand was one of the key priorities for inspiring tourism confidence among potential foreign visitors from October to the end of the year.